Computer users often input data into a computer that gets stored in a structured format. Many software applications store data in a structured format. Structured data gets is usually stored in various fields and tables in a database in ways that enable analysis, reporting, and examination of the data in various ways. Unstructured data is commonly created by users as well, such as documents and other information that allow the user to type information in a free-form fashion. A word processing document is an example of a typical unstructured data format that many users create. The document can contain various sections that the user defines, in no particular order, and with no particular consistency between different documents.
Analyzing information contained in unstructured documents in a meaningful way can be quite a complex task for organizations. For example, if hundreds of documents are on a user's computer or file server, it is quite difficult for the user to run a report against those documents to analyze the content of the documents in more meaningful ways.